That's not quite true though is it. I suggest you read some Viktor Frankl and Scholznitsen. The type of leader a country has always has something to do with its citizens. It's not a one way street. If enough citizens stand up to dictators, you get a better system.

After all, almost all countries had kings and dictators at some point, and eventually some got rid of them.

There's room for nuance here, though -- while "democracy via revolution" is a good backstop[1], it's self-evidently a higher-friction method of regime change than electoral democracy. People in the USA or EU are more responsible for their government than Russians.

[1] Interestingly the French Declaration of the Rights of Man from 1789 includes the right of "resistance to oppression"

Maybe the comment is about european leaders or even the russian oligarchs, not the russian people.

The comment is primarily about other countries governments and their wide lenience toward Putin, not about the Russian people. Without such leniency and appeasement (usually in the name of the oh-so-important "good economic relations"), no autocratic system can exist for long in todays world.

The US has a long, rich history of calling a foreign leader "dictator" then installing a new government. We kind of got tired of it because it's actually extremely unethical.

Looking at the chart of USD RUB this is going to have massive consequences.

IMO we have probably just got rid of Putin and brought back Russian Communism.

Then you will have a Communist block with China that instantly has nuclear parity with the West.

Anyone with savings in rubles just had their savings turned to dust. I think we underestimate the power of financial weapons in the 21st century.

Why would Russia go back to communism without Putin? He didn't cause the downfall of Communism. Their default could be many things, but reinstating the USSR is not one of them.